New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) why there was delay in the probe of the illegal assets cases relating to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the CBI said that the agency was not responsible for it, the apex court asked who would take responsibility for the delay.
The SC had heard a batch of petitions filed by the YSRCP MP Raghu Rama Krishnam Raju seeking the transfer of cases pertaining to CM Jagan and others from the Telugu states. The bench consisting of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Deepankar questioned the CBI lawyers about the delay in the CM Jagan cases. The Solicitor General said that the agency cannot take up responsibility for the adjournments being caused in the lower court.
The lawyer representing CM Jagan told the court that the petitioner filed the cases out of political motivation. He further said that the petitioner has been resorting to anti-YSRCP activities for the past three years after the party has taken action against him. This is why these cases should be heard and closed as early as possible, CM Jagan's lawyer told the apex court and also pointed out that there were directions in the past for speedy disposal of the cases filed against the people's representatives. The SC questioned why there were so many adjournments in these cases and questioned the rationale for so much delay.
Also, CM Jagan's lawyer pointed out that the ruling YSRCP in AP had slapped the disqualification notice on Raghu Rama Raju and later, he had filed these petitions. However, the top court said that it would not go into political aspects in the cases but that it was only concerned about the legal issues involved in them. The immediate question is why there has been inordinate delay and whether one single discharge petition was disposed of till now, the court said. The next hearing is posted for April.
